How does operating expense go from $423,000 almost empty to $198,712 with more occupants?

Posted Thursday, November 24, 2011, at 10:16 AM

A couple things in John Carney's article titled "Juvenile center gets a reprieve" just jumped out at me and I had to comment. JUST HAD TO!

This is not a criticism but some may look at it that way. It is truly looking at the positive, but here we go. First a question, how does a near empty Juvenile Detention Center cost $423,000 per year to operate? Really, how does it costs that much?

When threatened with closure the net costs are now projected to be $110,416. Was the original projection an actual figure? If not, what was it?

If local juvenile court officials were able to reduce this to a projected year end cost of $110,416, can these type of results be out there for most, if not all of our operating expenses? How did they do it?

I know they made an income of $88,296 from soliciting other county's business but you would think that would INCREASE operating expenses. Instead they also reduced some serious expenses.

Kudos to all involved. Now, can it be cloned for other departments?

I was going to make other observations about the IRS portion of the article, but this topic can wait for another blog. The one above needs exploring.

Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.